Tuesday, February 21, 2006

When you've lost Corvallis...have you lost the American people?

Council majority favors call to withdraw troops; vote due today on resolution

By REBECCA BARRETTGazette-Times reporter

Despite a threatened lawsuit, complaints of partisan politics and objections from the mayor, it appears a majority of the Corvallis City Council favors a resolution calling on the United States government to make plans to bring troops home from Iraq.

At least five of the nine elected councilors — Jerry Davis, Trish Daniels, George Grosch, Rob Gandara and Emily Hagen — have made comments endorsing the resolution, which the full council will vote on at its noon meeting today. Two councilors — Scott Zimbrick and Betty Griffiths — have said they are opposed to the resolution. Councilor Hal Brauner said he is leaning toward supporting the resolution, and Council President Charlie Tomlinson hasn’t publicly expressed his view.

Councilors are considering sending a letter to President Bush, Oregon’s congressional delegation and other state and local officials on behalf of Corvallis residents.

Proponents of the resolution say this bottom-up message is the way to sway the administration to change its course of action in Iraq.

Bush is already changing course in Iraq, basically following most of the Murtha Plan. But anything we can do as Oregonians to speed the process along--by all means.

Some in Corvallis believe that the city council shouldn't draft such a resolution..that it isn't the job of city government to deal with US foreign policy:

Opponents of the resolution, including many who are opposed to the war, say it isn’t the business of city government to get involved in foreign policy.

David Smithe is outraged that the council would deprive people of their right to voice their own opinion.

“A lawsuit against your city is being considered, and it will be taken as high as we can get it,” Smithe wrote in a Feb. 14 e-mail to the council. “It is the process of stealing the beliefs of others and forcing political values onto others for ‘group think’ and good dog/bad dog concept that is going to bring your city to its knees.”

In letters and public testimony regarding the resolution, Smithe and other opponents have warned officials of possible consequences if the resolution passes. Many people have characterized the council’s discussion of the war as “divisive.”

Bullcookies. We have young men and women coming home in coffins from cities around the country. More yet coming home alive but irrepairably damaged. Municipalities and counties and states will bear the burden of this generation lost to an unnecessary war. The longer it continues, the greater that burden will be. A city has every right and authority to demand that the federal government stop sending them this burden that the feds certainly aren't going to pay for.